


leave a message after the beep

by lulla_lunekjaer



Category: The Ever Afters Series - Shelby Bach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, F/F, How Do I Tag, rain help
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-12 04:20:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11729376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lulla_lunekjaer/pseuds/lulla_lunekjaer
Summary: Adelaide Radcliffe explains to her parents why, exactly, it is that she is not marrying her fiancé today. Or any day, really. She's marrying her fiancée instead.





	leave a message after the beep

_ “You’ve reached the residence of Reginald and Amelia Radcliffe. Please leave a message after the tone.” _

Adelaide shuffles her feet around, trying to warm them up. She’s going to be standing here for a while. 

_ beeeeeeep, _ goes the tone. Adelaide takes a deep breath.

“Hi, Mom, Dad. It’s me, your daughter.” 

She laughs, breathy and a little bit shaky. 

“I almost wish I could have been there to see your faces when you realized I was gone. Was it when you saw the note saying I had already gone to the church? Did Theo call you? He’s a nice enough boy, I just-” 

She wraps her jacket closer, tucking her chin into her scarf. 

“He’s not mine. Not my choice, not who I’m in love with and now, not my husband, not ever.”

Adelaide glances through the door to the outside of the phone booth. She has time. 

“I left him a note, too. He was always nice to me, even when we both knew this isn’t what we wanted. 

“Did you realize I was gone before or after you arrived at the church? Did they tell you that I was being difficult, locking myself in the dressing room and not responding to them? How ashamed were you when you had to tell all of them, all of the guests, Theo’s parents and Grandmother and Lady Edith and everyone that your daughter had run off the night before the wedding, that she couldn’t be found, that there wouldn’t be a wedding? Or did you lie to them? Say that I was feeling sick, that I had caught something or stayed out too late at the bachelorette party? How long were you able to keep that up?”

She looks outside again, at the bright yellow car against the gray city. 

“It was never going to work out, you know. Never. Maybe we could’ve been friends, but we both would’ve been miserable in the lives you picked out for us. And what would our kids have been like, with us as parents? You can’t bullshit me on that, you know you would’ve started needling me on them eventually, how the Robinsons are ‘soooooooo happy’ with theirs and it would be ‘nice to have some kids in the house again’ and not caring that kids grow up to be people, that I grew up to be a person! This is my life, and for once, I’m making the choices. I mean, I’m 24 years old, it’s about time.”

The yellow car doesn’t belong to Adelaide, but it already feels far more  _ hers _ than anything her parents had ever bought her.

“It’s about time for something else, too. Something I’ve known for almost a decade.”

She glances over again, but this time, she’s not looking at the car. She’s looking at the brown-haired woman leaning against it. When their eyes meet, she smiles at Adelaide, like she’s giving her courage for what comes next.

“I’m a lesbian. I’m totally, irreconcilably, gay. I like women. I love women. And I’ve met someone, and I love her, and god, I am so fucking gay. And no, she didn’t turn me gay. I’ve been gay since I had a crush on Daisy in second grade, for god’s sake. And now it’s out there. Now you know.”

Her hands are cold on the pay phone, but she’ll be done soon.

“By the time you hear this, probably, I’ll be married. To a woman. My girlfriend, fiancée really. She’s gorgeous. The most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.” She laughs. “You wouldn’t like her, too muscular for you. It’s not proper, you’d say. Well, then, love isn’t proper, so fuck proper. Goodbye, Mom. Bye, Dad. Don’t bother trying to call back.”

Adelaide hangs up the phone. She takes a breath, then another, leaves the phone booth. The woman leaning on the yellow car beams at her. 

“Are you ready?”

Adelaide throws her arms around Rory’s neck, pulls her close, and kisses her, long and deep. 

_ Yes _ , she thinks,  _ forever and always, yes. _

**Author's Note:**

> anyway they get married without telling anyone and later Rory calls Chase but he doesn't pick up so she leaves a voicemail like hey,,,, I got married today and I love my wife very much I'll see you soon okay bye (true story my second cousin once removed did this when she married her wife and her uncle who's really like her father freaked out it was great)


End file.
